A sign that the current crisis is fanning a desire for protectionism emerged yesterday when members of Congress warned George Bush against trying to fast-track a trade deal for the end of the year.

Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organisation, is considering calling trade ministers to Geneva to conclude the Doha liberalisation talks.

"Unfortunately, the negotiating texts currently on the table would provide little if any new market access for US goods, and important advanced developing countries are demanding even further concessions from the US," said a bipartisan letter from Charles Rangel, Max Baucus, Jim McCrery and Charles Grassley. Democrats Rangel and Baucus chair the Ways and Means and the Finance committees respectively, while McCrery and Grassley are the ranking Republican members.

"We see no tangible progress, and in fact believe that some of our trading partners have become even further entrenched in their unacceptable positions."

Lamy wants to bring more than seven years of acrimonious talks to an end with a meeting next weekend, after last month's summit of G20 leaders in Washington instructed trade ministers to settle differences over agriculture and manufactured goods. Some officials believe it would become more difficult to conclude any deal once Barack Obama is sworn in next month.

WTO sources last night talked of a meeting on December 13, although Lamy was more cautious. In a fax to the WTO's 153 members, he said he had yet to decide whether there had been enough progress since talks broke down in July: "As we all know, we still have a number of outstanding issues. But the reality is the relevance of what we are doing to the financial crisis," he said. "If we fail we have a problem; but although there remains the risk of failure, the risks involved in not trying are higher."

He is concerned that economic distress in the US, Europe and Asia is already prompting countries to use protectionist weapons yet to be outlawed by the WTO - raising tariffs to the maximum permitted, and introducing anti-dumping regulations.

US agriculture secretary Ed Schafer said he was confident a deal could be done, and confirmed that Washington was ready to make a big cut in its agreed ceiling for agriculture subsidies if other countries opened their markets further to US farm produce. "We in the US remain confident we can see a successful completion to the Doha round this year," he told reporters in Beijing.

However, the Congressmen warned Bush against being rushed into a deal that would be rejected on Capitol Hill. "We strongly urge you not to allow the calendar to drive the negotiations through efforts to hastily schedule a ministerial meeting, without adequate groundwork having been laid.

"Developed and advanced developing countries must commit to provide meaningful new market access opportunities if Congress is to support a deal.'

"Achieving the necessary flexibility from our trading partners could require new thinking ... and our negotiators should be given time to explore such options. Otherwise, the likely result will be a deal that Congress cannot support - an outcome that would be detrimental to US farmers, workers and firms, the global economy, and the WTO itself."

Amy Barry, trade spokeswoman for Oxfam, said: "This round of talks was meant to be primarily about development, not about market access for US farmers and companies. Yet Oxfam is hearing that the US, with tacit support from the European Union, Australia and others, has now put extra demands on the table, mostly about further prising open the markets of major emerging economies.

"These come as China has seen a major fall in its exports, leading to many enterprises closing and huge numbers laid off to go back onto the land ... India has lost 20% of its exports in a year, with 1.2m job losses in textiles and clothing alone ... It is difficult to understand why anyone would seriously expect China and India to agree to yet more trade concessions."